The Missing Hoodie Variable
by SergeantFuzzyBoots
Summary: Penny reflects on how her and Leonard's relationship functions. Lenny Week Day 6: Domesticity


**Lenny Week Day 6: Domesticity**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

It had become something of routine for the newly married couple to go out and buy groceries for the week on Sunday morning. After a week of both working late hours and early mornings, they'd jumped at the chance to spend some time together, even if it was doing something as simple as running a few early morning errands. It had continued from there, with the next Sunday finding Leonard and Penny out at the supermarket again, and the next week after that.

"Next time can you carry the bag of frozen stuff?" Leonard puffed, arms wrapped widely around a large brown bag of food as he waited for his wife to unlock the door to 4B.

"Aw, are you cold?" Penny asked, more playfully mocking than genuinely concerned.

Her husband shrugged. "I'm not wearing a hoodie under this jacket."

Penny decided against pointing out that she was only wearing a tank top, and focused on her task of getting the door open.

"Well, next time you can take the warm stuff and the bag full of all your medicine," she said upon entering the apartment. The blonde shook her head. "I can't believe all the pills you need takes up a whole bag."

Leonard simply shrugged. "I'm an enthusiast."

Penny smirked, placing the bags she'd brought in on the counter. They started removing the contents of the bags, storing them between the cupboards and fridge. Leonard began discussing plans for the rest of the day, work he had to get done in the coming week, as well as why Sheldon was currently angry with Raj. Penny supplied her own opinions on the topics, as well as sharing her own anecdotes from work at the theatre company, and how one of her cast mates had actually volunteered as a test subject in Bernadette's lab – or as he called her "the little angry scientist", prompting Penny to leave out that she was best friends with her. Overall, very inconsequential subjects of discussion, but ones that made them feel good nonetheless, as well as more connected.

The actress couldn't help but reflect on how many of her other friends who were married and her sister would always complain that their husbands never went to get groceries or ever did the dishes. They just wanted them to _do_ the chores, no time or patience for wanting to have them actually do it together. And yet, even before marriage, Leonard and Penny had always cleaned the dishes together, or gone to run errands. The cooking had been a shared activity, too, most of the time – although that was partly due to the yuck factor that accompanied Penny preparing a meal by herself, but still. Marriage hadn't forced these tasks upon them, it had simply meant they got to do all of them together as opposed to just some.

Penny found herself smiling at Leonard, pausing in unpacking the groceries to watch him find a place for the boxes of pasta they'd bought. A pleasant but puzzled expression came over her husband's face when he noticed the look she was giving him.

"What?" he asked, coming back to the counter.

The blonde shrugged, though she kept the grin. "Just remembering that Amy said Sheldon was visiting her lab while she was running tests on a monkey. She left to go to the bathroom, and when she came back, the two were playing cards."

Leonard snorted. "Who won?"

She rolled her eyes. "It was Sheldon versus a monkey – who do you think won?"

The experimental physicist nodded his head a few times. "Now wonder he was so mad Friday night."

Penny simply gave a quick nod in agreement, nudging her husband as she walked by to put some fish sticks in the freezer, the grin returning once she had her back turned. There really wasn't much point in voicing her true thoughts because she wasn't entirely sure how. This – what they always did, was just how they functioned together. It was how they'd always been. And it sounded kind of narcissistic to just blurt out that the two of them were awesome. Even if it was true.

So, the Nebraskan continued the small job with her husband, going about it as usual. At one point, she stopped him on his way to the bathroom cabinets to put away his medicine by placing a hand on his chest, leaning in to quickly kiss him. He grinned at her before going on his way, leaving her smiling, too. She had never been a fan of chores or cleaning, but Penny suddenly couldn't wait to do the dishes tonight.


End file.
